Description

SS 4837-4937
11/76
25.2.65

BRAUNTON
CHURCH STREET (east side)
Braunton
Bakers Thatch (formerly listed as No 38)

II

House. Circa late C15; remodelled circa early C17; altered and extended C18. Colourwashed rendered cob and stone rubble. Thatched roof with gabled ends. Stone rubble axial stacks.
PLAN: Long 4-room and through-passage plan house. The original late C15 house occupied the left [west] two rooms and central through-passage; it was open to the roof from end-to-end and divided by low partitions, the hall to the right of the passage heated from an open hearth fire. In about the early C17 an axial stack was built in the hall backing onto the through-passage and floors were inserted to create first floor chambers. In about the C18 the roof over the low end and much of the hall was replaced, probably when a 2-room plan extension with a central axial stack was built at the right hand east end of the house. The 1709 datestone in the west gable end might refer to this C18 work. In the C19 the lower west end room was used as a shop.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window range south front; half-glazed door to left of centre with small late C19 shop window with six large panes to left and 16-pane sash to right; first floor two late C19 4-pane sashes on left and 2-light casement to right; front is set back at right end with 2-light casement on both floors with glazing bars; canted corner to left with C20 window; left [west] gable end has small late C19 shop window with six large panes, late C19 4-pane sash above with 1709 datestone [painted over] to right. Rear north blocked through-passage doorway and sash and casement windows.
INTERIOR: Former hall has chamfered cross-beam with step stops at one end only and large stone fireplace in axial stack with remains of chamfered timber bressumer, replaced by brick arch, now covered by timber board; old bench in hall front window. On high end wall of hall a section of a C17 moulded plaster frieze made by pressing a mould into the wet plaster and repeating the pattern to create a frieze; the pattern comprises fleur-de-lis, lions rampant, a flagon with flowers and a scallop moulding. At the right end of the frieze an C18 niche with a shaped shelf. Lower west end room has axial beam rebated for partition [partition removed]. 4-bay roof, only the bay over the passage and low end of the hall survives intact, the two trusses with the feet of their straight principals set on the walls, mortice-and-tenoned collars, trenched diagonally-set ridgepiece and two tiers of threaded purlins, all smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The roof over the hall largely replaced; lower end roof replaced except for purlin on south side; the bay over the passage and lower end of the hall is complete over the south side with the thatching battens intact. There is evidence of smoke-blackening on the gable wall at the high end.
Bakers Thatch is a good example of a late Medieval 2-room and through-passage plan house originally open to the roof from end-to-end, remodelled in the early C17 and with an interesting section of a C17 moulded plaster frieze in the hall.

Listing NGR: SS4895137085

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611111

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)